I used to try to give this one away for gifts, but by the time I found bottles to use for giving it away, my friends and I had already made history of it. Basically, it’s vodka marinated for 10 days with orange peels and cranberries. The vanilla in the cranberry mixture makes it taste vaguely like cherries. I serve it “neat” (with no garnishment), but it can be served mixed with tonic water, ice and a lime garnish.

These are so easy, that you’ll be hard pressed not to laugh when you tell others what you did. Last year we named them “Scarabs” because they resemble Scarab beetles. But the name that sticks is “those Rolo-pretzel things.” Essentially, this elegant looking snack is a pretzel with a Rolo candy melted over it, topped off with a pecan. As my friend’s mother said, “The hardest thing about them is unwrapping all those *!#@$ candies!” Here’s the step-by-step:
1. Unwrap two bags of Rolo candies. I take care of this step in front of the TV, the night before I make these. At Halloween, they sell the candies wrapped in packages of three; if you pick up a few bags then, you’ll save yourself some unwrapping work.
2. Preheat oven to 300°.
3. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
4. Spread pretzels out on the cookie sheet (not too close to each other or the melted caramel from one will stick to the other).
5. Top each pretzel with a Rolo candy.
6. Bake for 10 minutes. When they are ready, the candy will be soft, but it won’t melt over the pretzel.7. Press a pecan into each candied pretzel.
8. Let cool before bagging up for the freezer.

I keep baggies of 2 dozen in my freezer, for quick contributions to informal parties. I’ve also been known to take baggies of these with me on long car trips. This is a fabulous treat!

In my column, Giving Away Baked Goods, I promised to give you the recipes for some of my favorite baking gifts. Here, you’ll find two recipes and instructions for making them. See the Domestic Goddess column Giving Away Baked Goods for information about wrapping and ordering.

In my mind, here’s what makes a food fit for giving away:
• It packs/wraps easily.
• It can go without refrigeration for several hours.
• It can be made and wrapped in advance and be stored in the freezer.
• There is at least one thing “special” about the recipe that makes it unlikely that your recipients would make it on their own—which makes it a treat.

Recipe #1: Ginger Bread with Lemon IcingThis recipe makes enough for six gift loaf pans. Paper pans with wax coating do not need to be prepared.

Lemon Brandy
Zest from 2 Lemons
4 ounces Brandy

Steep the lemon zest in brandy for at least one day. You can replenish the brandy twice using the same lemon zest.

3. Add powdered sugar ½ cup at a time (Watch out. Powdered sugar tends to fly and make a big mess!)
4. Pre-ice the cakes with 1 tablespoon of icing each. This will eliminate the possibility of crumbs in your lovely final cakes.
5. After the pre-icing has hardened, ice the cakes with the remaining icing.
6. Allow icing to harden before wrapping cakes.

Recipe #2: Fried WalnutsThis recipe falls into the category of recipes that will fool you by having few ingredients. First of all, any time you fry something, it is a mess. Before you start making these:• Put on an apron or old shirt on which you don’t mind spattering grease.
• Clear a large surface for laying the walnuts out (I use my kitchen table)
The reason I make these every year is because they are GREAT. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love them. They also pack really well and one batch makes seven gift bags.

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Add walnuts to the water and boil for 1 minute.
3. Drain boiled walnuts and rinse with hot water.
4. While the walnuts are hot, return them to the pot you used for boiling and mix well with sugar.
5. Heat 1 inch of cooking oil to 160°.
6. Fry the walnuts in two single layer batches for 4 minutes (Put lid or spatter guard on the pan to prevent more of a mess).
7. While the walnuts are frying, lay wax paper on your clear surface.
8. Scoop walnuts out of the oil with slotted spoon and drain well in a sieve (one year I didn’t drain the walnuts very well and they were so greasy that they were nasty.) [draining walnuts photo here]

This is a sociable time of year. For some of us, entertaining is fun—a chance to show off our lovely homes, our cooking and our planning skills to friends; a chance to work on the puzzle of how to fit 15 people into a home that feels crowded with 3 people in it; and a chance to drag out party games and toys that have gone unplayed since last winter.

For others, entertaining is a stressful required chore of the holiday season—this year, it is your turn to host the family (including all the nieces and nephews and their children) for Christmas Eve. You don’t keep your house visitor-ready (i.e. clean and neat with valuables put away), you don’t feel comfortable around a lot of people, and cooking doesn’t come naturally to you. Whether you love to entertain or not, here are some tips to make it less stressful:

Entertaining is for you to enjoy
As you are preparing to entertain, remember always that entertaining is meant to be enjoyable for you. Don’t serve food you don’t like. Don’t invite people into your home you don’t like. Close off rooms of your house that you don’t want people in. If cooking doesn’t come naturally to you, or you don’t enjoy it, buy food from a restaurant or a caterer. If you really feel uncomfortable having several people in your home, throw money at the problem: entertain in a restaurant party room.

Prepare EVERYTHING in advance
You may want to serve foods to your guests that you can’t prepare much in advance, such as spinach salad. I’m sorry, but you really need to knock that off your planned menu because you need to prepare EVERYTHING in advance! There are two reasons for this:
1. When you are entertaining, the only thing you should be thinking about is enjoying yourself.
2. If you have a small space, you can use your food preparation areas as flat surfaces for putting out food.

This lovely display of family photos will be put away in the service of snacks!

Use every surface
And I mean EVERY surface: the stove (if you don’t have a flat top, use planks of plywood and table cloths to make it flat); the top of the coffee table where you usually keep magazines; the end table where you keep awesome photos of your kids; the kitchen counters (which you don’t need since you already prepared EVERYTHING in advance).

Use the rest of the house creatively
Empty a bookshelf and use it as a bar. Keep the cold drinks in your bathtub or kitchen sink. Put everyone’s coats on the wicker sofa in the screened in porch.

Final reminders.
• Enjoy yourself.
• If you have only one bathroom, don’t use that bathtub for cold drinks.
• If you don’t want people to go in your bedroom, don’t put coats in there.
• Before you have people you aren’t close to in your house, snoop-proof it. Paper bags are helpful for this. Say you keep several medications in your medicine cabinet in the bathroom that you’d rather not have just anyone see. Put them all in a paper bag and put the bag in your underwear drawer. That is not a great hiding place to prevent burglaries, but it is good enough for a party. While it is entirely likely that someone will open your medicine cabinet; it is improbable that a party-goer will rifle through your underwear drawer and open a paper bag. Use a paper, rather than plastic, because it makes more noise. Since your medicines are all together in one bag, they will be easy to return to the medicine cabinet after your party.

Easy and fabulous party foods:
• Figs, cut in half topped with cream cheese mixed with chopped pecans (you have no idea how great this is until you try it)
• Homemade cookies
• Apple slices with lime juice squeezed over them, served with good cheddar cheese

The best party foods:
• Don’t require a fork
• Don’t require a plate
• Can be eaten standing up and with one hand
And here’s the deal about serving: Nothing you serve has to look fantastic. Rather, it should be easy to get to and serve, and it should taste great. Your friends are there to enjoy you and your hospitality, not to be impressed.